Former Englefeld teacher accused of professional misconduct

Desi Zimmerman appeared before a Saskatchewan Teachers Federation discipline committee on Oct. 20, 2016. He is no longer employed by the Englefeld school division. (Betty Ann Adam/Saskatoon StarPhoenix)Saskatoon

A former Englefeld high school student testified that she was “scared” and “felt totally trapped” when she allowed her former teacher and coach, Desi Zimmerman, to have sex with her in his car in 2004.

The complainant, now 31, told a disciplinary committee of the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation (STF) that Zimmerman had kissed her in the gymnasium office in June 2004, when she was in Grade 12.

The woman said it was stomach turning and she never told anyone. She was embarrassed at not being able to stop it or to confront him, she said.

Over the ensuing weeks, Zimmerman discouraged her long-term relationship with her boyfriend, wrote letters he later told her to destroy and eventually had sexual intercourse with her numerous times, the woman testified during more than five hours on the witness stand.

The kiss was a turning point in an escalating pattern of intimacy led by Zimmerman, which had begun when the woman was in the ninth grade and he quizzed her about her relationship with her boyfriend, she said. He gave her rides home from tournaments and called her to numerous one-on-one meetings every week in his tiny office, she testified.

Throughout high school, Zimmerman taught the girl several classes per year and coached her on school athletic teams. When she developed a muscle knot in her armpit, he massaged it in the presence of her mother, who later commented on the incident. The witness said she felt uncomfortable and wished he would stop touching her but had a strong impulse to protect other people from feeling uncomfortable. She said she dismissed her mother’s concern.

In the 11th grade, she injured her ankle during a volleyball tournament and Zimmerman carried her off the court in his arms. The woman’s husband, who was her boyfriend at the time, was in the stands. He testified he thought it was inappropriate for a coach to carry an athlete “princess style” to the bench. He said he’s never seen any other athlete treated that way.

The woman said she was flattered by the attention from her coach, who confided in her his own regrets about getting married at a young age.

After a private meeting after school one day near the end of the school year, Zimmerman told her to get in his car, she testified. He drove out of town and confessed his attraction to her, saying he couldn’t help himself, she said. When he asked her if she wanted to park and make out, she said, “I don’t know,” she testified.

She said she was afraid and in a cold sweat. They were “in the middle of nowhere,” and she knew she couldn’t outrun his vehicle.

They had intercourse that day and on several other occasions until she ended it sometime in July.

Asked why she continued the sexual relationship, the woman said she felt “broken and incomplete.” She’d lost her virginity and she grasped at normalcy through the semblance of a relationship, she said.

Zimmerman’s lawyer, Scott Spencer, focused his cross-examination on whether intercourse first occurred before or after the June 30 end of the woman’s Grade 12 year.

The woman told her husband in 2007, but he refused to hear details. When they attended marriage counselling in the summer of 2015 and she mentioned it, the counsellor said he had to inform the Englefeld school division before the school year began.

Zimmerman did not return to working with students last fall, but remained employed with the division until late 2015, when he left by mutual agreement, Spencer said.

The woman said she complained to the RCMP but no charges have been laid.

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